Technical Difficulties

~Friday, July 24, 2020~

Day 40

As long as we stay productive while stranded in Bakersfield, we’ll be o.k. But first, a pleasant morning walk with Sadie around the RV park. I thought I’d bring my Iphone with me to track my steps and mileage. My back has really been giving me trouble so decided, it’s time to get back into my 3 mile a day hikes/walks. I know Sadie misses it too. I’ve been doing a lot more computer work, sitting at my desk trying to set up our social media accounts for our trip, and it’s taking a toll on my back. I swear the fast walks that I do, help keep my spine in shape, and the body loose. 4 loops took 1 hour, but only gave me 2.5 miles (bummer). Hmm, I don’t think it factors in stride.

I spent the morning trying to straighten out our AT&T accounts, moving Shane to his own account, then figuring out what our needs are and what suits our budget. We also had 5 months of free wi-fi hotspot use when we purchased the truck back in February (the truck that doesn’t run right now). To keep the wi-fi would cost about $15.00/month and is only useful when we’re driving. So we nixed that idea and just signed up for the Unlimited Premium Plan. Hey we don’t want to be connected all of the time anyway, right? And we have our trusty National Geographic Road Atlas as a backup in case we run into any nav system problems. I know, I know…..who uses maps anymore, but it’s always good to have a safety net right?

Next came talking to Wix tech support with issues I was having setting up our blog. They were super helpful!

Lastly, getting the radio/tv’s dialed in for good. The first support person I spoke with yesterday said it might be a bad HDMI cable, but after trying the new one, we were still having issues. So I called another tech advisor about the pink screen issue. He said there have been numerous complaints from other customers about the same thing and to request a new radio from Lance. I quickly called Lance with the case # I was given from Jensen Radio. Lance’s response was that they would look into it and get right back to me. In the meantime, Jeff wanted to try a couple of things to see if those might work. Sure enough, the HDMI cable to the radio doesn’t seem to have a strong connection and comes loose very easily. So he secured the cable to the radio with electrical tape, and voila, a clear, “normal” picture. My hubby sure knows how to fix 99% of everything. He had a great teacher! Then I called Lance back to cancel the request. We’ll certainly keep our eyes on it.

Steve, at Richardson’s RV received the photos I took of the repairs that need to get taken care of so that the necessary parts can be ordered. He’s on it. What our hope is, is that we can come to them in the next week or so, that is if the parts arrive in time. We really don’t want to have to circle back to them for any other repairs since we’re leaving California.

Jeff worked on trying to get us different accommodations in a cooler climate. A lot of things were booked so he had to look for things that fly under the radar and found Gold Ranch RV Resort in Truckee. It would be 10-15 degrees cooler, but the question was, could we use the loaner truck to drive 4 or 5 hours away from Bakersfield. I texted Chris Strong who loaned us the truck. The answer was “no”. I texted Chris Strong who loaned us the truck, and his kind reply was “no” and that he didn’t know how reliable that vehicle would be for the journey to Truckee and that if we wanted to go with a rental from another company, that would have to be approved by Ford in the hopes of covering the costs to get it. We’ll check in with Omar on Monday. Staying somewhere cooler was a great idea though. Jeff’s always looking out for us. He also managed to dial in the LevelMatePro today. Can’t wait to try it out. We’ll always have our trusty old school level for backup if we don’t have a cell phone signal.

I called Omar about my concerns with the recall issue, with his reply that our truck was not one affected by this recall. The recall notice was just posted on July 6, so maybe they haven’t caught up with their list of vin #’’s affected. I also asked Omar to add a tire rotation onto the repair list since they already had our truck racked, and because we’ve been heavily inconvenienced. He said he would add it. I also wanted to know if the transmission we were getting is new or rebuilt. I was told that unless the truck comes from the plant, the transmissions are rebuilt in the sense that the shell or casing is used, but the inside is new.

Now for some R&R. We had 2 games of Cornhole with Jeff winning both games (by a lot), then taking Sadie on her walk before making a delicious dinner of salmon, Carne Asada, roasted potatoes and arugula salad. And finally….getting to watch our first DVD movie in the RV. The movie…. “A Lovely Day in the Neighborhood” with Tom Hanks.